1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to notification and alert systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to notification systems for alerting recipients upon delivery of an item with specific information relating thereto.
2. Related Art
Throughout the course of a day, most individuals run a wide variety of personal and business errands, including picking up mail and other delivered items. In many residential neighborhoods, each house may have a separate mailbox located outside of the dwelling space adjacent to the boundary of the property. In neighborhoods where the distance between properties is closer, the front door of each unit may have a slot through which mail may be delivered. For those having such living arrangements, picking up mail is merely incidental because of the relatively short distance that must be traversed to retrieve it. However, it may be bothersome for those living in urban centers such as high-rise condominiums and apartment buildings to retrieve mail, because in such places, mail is delivered to a central commons area. There may be a large repository segregated into compartments for each resident, and such repositories may be located a considerable distance away from the dwelling unit. Moreover, for privacy and identify-theft prevention, some may prefer to rent post office boxes, which, again, may be located far from the recipient's home. Additionally, small businesses frequently lease commercial mailboxes, thereby allowing them to receive mail at an address without having to lease additional physical facilities such as office space. Thus, those running home-based businesses need not disclose their home address to potential customers and suppliers.
With increasingly busy schedules, many are forced to allocate less time to simple tasks such as retrieving mail. However, this conflicts with the increased distance and time expenditure necessary to do so. More often than not, retrieving mail becomes of secondary importance, and as a result, neglected for a period of time. This may lead to the possibility of missing unexpected, yet important messages and deliveries such as surprise gifts. Large packages are typically left in oversized compartments, which are limited in number. Thus, unclaimed packages may cause a backlog and prevent others from retrieving their own packages. Conversely, there may be instances where the anticipated message or delivery is of such high importance to the recipient such that all other daily tasks are neglected in favor of repeatedly and incessantly checking for arrival. For example, those anticipating results from professional licensure exams, college and graduate school entrance exams, as well as small businesses owners awaiting payment, and the like have been known to exhibit such behavior.
Further compounding the above-described situations is that in many instances, postal mail delivery is not on a strictly set schedule; depending on the day of the week, mail may be delivered at different times. Accordingly, even disciplined individuals following rigid daily schedules cannot reliably plan mail retrieval because of such inherent uncertainties. On some days, there may not be a delivery simply because there is no mail to deliver. Even when mail is delivered, it may not warrant a trip to the mailbox because the only items delivered are so-called junk mail such as unwanted credit card offers, advertising circulars, fraudulent sweepstakes entries, and the like.
The schedule of courier services such as United Parcel Service, Federal Express, DHL, and the like are even more erratic. Though specific services may provide guaranteed delivery by a specified time, most often such services are not utilized because of the added cost. In any case, the actual delivery time depends upon a variety of factors that vary throughout the week, such the location of other stops on the schedule for a given day, the amount of time it takes to complete delivery at such other stops, and so forth.
As can be appreciated from the foregoing, there is a detriment to productivity and efficiency when the number of trips to the mailbox is above the minimum necessary to retrieve all essential mail within an acceptable time span. In recognition of the need for rapidly notifying a recipient of a completed delivery, U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,433 to Moskowitz et al. contemplates a system for determining whether an item has been placed in a repository based upon different types and combinations of sensors. After making that determination, a notification is transmitted to the recipient via a number of well-known communication devices. The Moskowitz et al. device enhanced instant notification, thereby allowing recipients already near the repository to take a short detour to retrieve mail, or to rearrange plans with the consideration to retrieve mail along the way.
Though the Moskowitz et al. system was a substantial improvement in mail delivery notification systems, some inefficiencies mentioned above still remained. For instance, there was insufficient information as to the contents of the delivery such that an informed decision could not be made on whether it was worth the trip to the repository. Thus, despite being informed very rapidly as to a delivery, the recipient may have simply been given expedited notice of junk mail, and the trip to the repository would essentially have been wasted.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved delivery notification system that minimizes the number of unnecessary trips to a repository for mail and other deliveries such as a mailbox. More particularly, there is a need for a delivery notification system that can provide immediate notice with specific information on the delivered item to the recipient, such that the recipient can make an informed decision as to whether a trip to the repository is warranted or not.